Calcuttans are generally a tolerant lot. They do not seem to mind breathing noxious air, or having their nerves rattled by noise. They have now been persuaded by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation to put up with a fortnight of seriously disrupted water-supply. All this, they have been assured, is for the sake of the future. The entire water-supply infrastructure for Greater Calcutta is being extensively repaired, extended and networked in order to fortify the city and its suburbs against an imminent crisis. The citizens seem to have accepted this rationale, in spite of the trials of a delayed and half-hearted monsoon. Not that they have much choice. But if the KMC invokes a long-term vision of a grim future for water in the city, should it not extend this vision beyond the question of scarcity, to think and talk about the problem of contamination as well?

In a way, thousands of Calcuttans are already battling the terrible effects of arsenic and fluoride in their water, compounded by their government’s failure in utilizing the ample funds to make any significant difference to the situation. Contamination is the result of falling groundwater-levels, which is, in turn, the consequence of the forms taken by “development” in the city: indiscriminate construction, particularly of immense residential complexes. A burgeoning city calls for more housing, which requires more water, even while gravely depleting the groundwater resources. In some areas of the city — those which have been built up most rapidly in the last decade or so — the groundwater-level has dropped to as low as 11 metres. Such unthinking construction is not simply because of a lack of vision, but also the result of greed and corruption, coupled with callousness regarding the importance of conserving waterbodies. Promoters, politicians and the administration collude to maintain this unconcern — because the stakes, in monetary terms, are very high indeed. The environment department had recently drafted a dangerously mindless bill for the preservation of waterbodies like ponds and wetlands. If passed, this bill would only heighten the corrupt destruction of waterbodies in the state. The state pollution control board and the department of water research have now started making dire predictions regarding the city’s water-supplies. Investing in huge water-making and purification units is undoubtedly crucial to remedy this. But an even larger vision of the problem will have to be worked out. This will involve nothing less than a fundamental rethinking of the notion of urban development in the state.